Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom Supersonic turbines at AI data centers

Crusoe, a Denver-based developer of AI data centers, has abandoned a $1.25 billion plan to power its sites with stationary gas turbines built by Boom Supersonic, ending a launch partnership that was meant to open a new business line for the aircraft maker.

What the deal covered

Crusoe was founded in 2018 as a bitcoin miner that ran on excess natural gas from oil fields, and it has since become one of the largest builders of AI data centers. Its portfolio includes a campus in Abilene, Texas, that supplies computing power to OpenAI. Boom Supersonic, also based in Denver, is developing a supersonic passenger jet called Overture; last year it launched a business that sells a version of the jet's engine as natural-gas-fired stationary power plants. The Superpower turbine shares about 80% of its parts with the airborne engine, Symphony.

Under the agreement, Crusoe was to spend $1.25 billion on 29 of Boom's 42-megawatt Superpower turbines, with the first deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027.

How the partnership ended

Boom CEO Blake Scholl said Friday in a post on X that the companies are no longer moving forward with the turbine launch partnership. In the same post he congratulated Crusoe founders Cully Cavness and Chase Lochmiller on the company's recent $3.9 billion fundraise. “The TL/DR is that turbines are no longer part of Crusoe's near term primary power mix at Abilene/etc., so a launch partnership just didn't make sense,” Scholl wrote. He added that Boom will deliver about 250 megawatts of Superpower turbines to other sites next year and is targeting 1 gigawatt in 2028, and that he hopes to team up again if turbines become part of Crusoe's primary power mix.

Crusoe confirmed to TechCrunch that it is no longer doing business with Boom. “We build AI factories from the power up, and we're bringing new campuses online across the country, powered by innovative energy sources,” spokesperson Andrew Schmitt said. “As our portfolio grows, we stay flexible, choosing the energy solutions that are right for each site as its needs evolve, including turbines, along with wind, solar, batteries and the grid. While Boom has been a great partner, the partnership isn't the right fit today.”

A setback for Boom's power business

Losing its first customer is an apparent setback for Boom, which raised $300 million late last year largely to commercialize the stationary power plant business. Scholl has said the idea was to use profits from those power plants to fund development of Overture. He could not be reached for comment before publication.